Playing truant with the district administration in order to skip election duty on health grounds has turned out to be a spoilsport for the employees of Hailakandi district. The reason behind it — District Election Officer (DEO) of Hailakandi Adil Khan has formed a special medical board headed by Joint Director, Health Services, Dr Abed Rasul Mazumder and consisting of doctors and specialists for health examination of all such government employees, who sought exemption from election duty due to illness.
Of the total ten applications received by the DEO regarding exemption from election duty, nine of the applicants were found to be fit for election duty by the medical board constituted for the purpose. Only one employee was declared unfit. Hailakandi goes to Panchayat polls on December 9 in the second phase along with nine other districts of Assam.
A member of the board said that the medical board comprising doctors was constituted at the direction of DEO for examining of employees who had expressed inability in performing election duty on medical grounds.
“Employees claiming sickness are being examined by a board which is a continuous process. As far as election duty is concerned, the medical board constituted for the purpose will decide whether an employee is fit for election duty or not, “he said.
On the issue of those found fit by the medical board on examination, DEO Adil Khan said that all those officials who were declared fit by the medical board would be deployed as polling personnel during the Panchayat elections. However, as of now no other departmental action would be initiated against them.
“Setting up of medical board will help to put brakes on the sick leave applications spree, which I was receiving from the unwilling employees, wanting to skip election duty, ” Khan said adding that action would be taken against them if the employees fail to turn up even after being declared physically fit by the medical board.